HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Steve Asmussen sent out a pair of impressive 3-year-old winners last week at Oaklawn in Mitole and Title Ready, and both could be headed to stakes competition. Mitole won a maiden special weight sprint with a Beyer Speed Figure of 96 on Saturday, and Title Ready conquered two turns in his first attempt in a deep allowance race Feb. 1.

Mitole was a 10-length winner, covering six furlongs in 1:09.75. One race earlier, older sprinters in the $125,000 King Cotton covered the same distance in 1:09.85.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn leading trainer Brad Cox flexed some of the barn’s 3-year-old muscle over the weekend with Classic Empire’s half-brother Exclamation Point winning his debut Saturday and Cheponera punching her ticket to the Grade 3, $125,000 Honeybee with an authoritative allowance victory Friday.

Exclamation Point won a maiden special weight over six furlongs by 2 1/2 lengths. He covered the distance in 1:10.59 and for the effort earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 77. Cox said the horse could run back in the middle of March.

Veteran jockey Jamie Theriot will move his tack to the island nation of Mauritius following the completion of the Fair Grounds meeting, Theriot recently told Fair Grounds publicity staff.

Theriot has a contract to ride in Mauritius, which sits about 1,200 miles off the southeast coast of Africa, for an established trainer named Ramapatee Gujadhur. Theriot, 39, said he plans to ride the entire Mauritius racing season and return to the United States next fall.

Yockey’s Warrior has been doing so well the last few months that he has trainer and part-owner Al Stall thinking long-term.

With an eye toward important stakes throughout the year – perhaps even including the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, if Yockey’s Warrior continues thriving – Stall is taking it easy right now with the leading sprinter stabled at Fair Grounds.

Cedartown looked like graded stakes material winning his two most recent starts and is on track to prove he belongs at that level later this month.

Whether Cedartown’s graded stakes debut comes in the Grade 3 Mineshaft on Feb. 17 at Fair Grounds or in the Grade 3 Razorback on Feb. 19 at Oaklawn Park hasn’t yet been fully determined, trainer Mike Stidham said. But while the Razorback is worth $500,000 and the Mineshaft just $150,000, Cedartown is more likely to stay home in New Orleans for his upcoming start.

The biggest day so far at the 2017-18 Tampa Bay Downs meet will be Saturday, when Catholic Boy and Hollywood Star clash in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes and turf champion World Approval preps for a trip to Dubai in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes.

Catholic Boy, a 4 3/4-length winner of the Remsen Stakes in his final start at 2, figures as a decisive favorite when he makes his 3-year-old debut in the $200,000 Sam Davis, a 1 1/16-mile race that offers 17 qualifying points to the Kentucky Derby, including 10 to the winner.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Norman Casse, longtime assistant to his father, Mark Casse, will launch his training career when sending out Rate of Return in Wednesday’s fifth race. Casse has surrended his assistant’s license to the stewards in lieu of taking out his trainer’s license.

“The big question I get is why am I doing this now,” the younger Casse said. “From a personal and professional standpoint, I’m bored. I think I’ve maxed out my capacity as an assistant trainer and I’m ready to take the next step forward.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Less than 24 hours after finishing second and third, respectively, with Free Drop Billy and Tiz Mischief in the Grade 2 Holy Bull, trainer Dale Romans may have found himself another Kentucky Derby candidate after Storm Runner outlasted odds-on favorite Mississippi to capture Sunday’s co-feature going 1 1/16 miles on the main track.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Queen’s Plate winner Holy Helena proved she’s just as good on turf as on dirt and synthetic surfaces when making her grass bow a winning one in Sunday’s $53,000 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park. Holy Helena rallied wide under Jose Ortiz before running down the pacesetting Kylla Instinct and outfinishing the highly regarded Shaan to register a hard-fought neck decision in her first start since running second in the Grade 3 Ontario Derby nearly four months ago.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sometimes you never know what little surprises you’re going to get during the Gulfstream Park Championship meet. Friday’s card is a case in point, where mixed in among the regular weekday fare of so many maiden and low-level conditioned claiming races is a main event that features the 2018 debut of one of the premier sprinters in the country, Mind Your Biscuits, and the return of the undefeated, Grade 3 winner One Liner.